'Kate' review: Conventional action thriller with Mary Elizabeth Winstead

WHAT IT'S ABOUT In the action thriller "Kate," Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays a highly trained assassin based in Tokyo seeking revenge when she's poisoned and given only 24 hours to live.

Joining Winstead's Kate on this journey through the yakuza underworld, and awakening her long-dormant conscience, is Ani (Miku Martineau), the teenage daughter of the target Kate eliminates at the beginning of the movie.

Co-stars include Woody Harrelson, playing a version of himself as usual as Kate's mentor Varrick. Cedric Nicolas-Troyan ("The Huntsman: Winter's War") directs from a screenplay by Umair Aleem.

MY SAY There are few archetypal characters more beloved by screenwriters than the wronged assassin. So many movies have the same basic premise as "Kate" that it has practically become a stock plot: A killer experiences pangs of morality while avenging a deep betrayal.

Even with elements that separate "Kate" from the pack, including a compelling performance by Mary Elizabeth Winstead and a keen eye for the neo-noir wonders of nighttime Tokyo, there's no evading the generic foundation.

Winstead is no stranger to action thrillers, with a resume that includes co-starring stints opposite the likes of Bruce Willis, Will Smith and Margot Robbie in "Birds of Prey."

She knows what she's doing.

Her Kate cuts an imposing figure: coolheaded as she annihilates the stock bad guys thrust in her path, while stricken with just the right amount of guilt and regret. Certain actors simply command the screen in movies like this: you've either got what it takes to pull this off, or you don't.

As a bloodied and bruised Kate struts toward the camera in slow-motion, a cigarette dangling from her lips and gunfire erupting all around her, it's clear: Winstead has it, keeping the viewer invested even as the picture immerses itself in predictable rhythms. This is what a movie star does.

"Kate" also has the great fortune of being set in one of the most cinematic of cities, a gleaming sprawl of skyscrapers shimmering in neon. There's a strong sense of place in the onscreen Tokyo of "Kate." This vision of the city as a glossy nighttime fever dream may be recognizable when it comes to other Hollywood productions set there, but it offers a rich visual template.

But the stylish flair cannot sufficiently distract from the overarching hollowness. The plot is so conventional that anyone with the slightest bit of genre knowledge can guess exactly what happens — and exactly when. There's not a surprise to be found.

At the same time, the stabs at framing the story within the context of larger themes about toxic Western influence fall utterly flat.

None of this impacts the experience of being entertained by the movie on the most basic level while it happens. There's enough here for some escapist fun. But anyone in search of something worth remembering would do well to look elsewhere.

BOTTOM LINE This is a conventional action thriller with some worthy touches but hardly enough to make it stand out.